We left it late, very late, but substitute George Holland came off the bench with minutes to go, so secure a 90th minute winner for Dial Square.
It was the club's first ever victory in the league, albeit a touch fortuitous.

With the club making new signings to strengthen the back four, the club were in buoyant mood. The experienced Chris Ellis and Matty Day came straight into the starting line-up, as did Jacob Weekes. Although rusty and recovering from long term injuries, Ellis and Day showed the glimpses of quality and assurances the club had so desperately needed since the start of the season.

Chertsey did start the better of the two sides. Both clubs were exchanging physical battles from the first whistle, which became overheated at times.
The fight shown by The Dial had been severely lacking since the club first kicked a ball, so it was refreshing to see a new edge to the team.

The home side had the best chance of the game inside 30 minutes, with Ben Bateman pulling off a stunning save from a rifled shot. It wasn't to be the only time Ben kept us in it during the afternoon.

Somewhat against the run of play, it was Dial Square that took the lead. Williams poking the ball home on 38 minutes. It was certainly a shock, but this helped the side settle into the game and when the half-time whistle blew, Dial were looking for a second.
The second half started well for the visitors. Chances came and went and we all knew that just one more goal would give us breathing space.

However, the game soon turned on its head when just after the hour mark. The Chertsey striker was put through '1 on 1', making no mistake, tucking the ball past the advancing Bateman, into the bottom corner. 1 - 1 and it was very much game on

No sooner had Dial had chance to draw breath, debutant Jacob Weekes then felled their left winger inside the box, resulting in the referee pointing to the spot.
It wasn't to be though for Chertsey. Ben Bateman producing a wonderful save, getting down to his left at full stretch, palming the ball away to safety and keeping the game all square.

It was a crazy 10 minutes in the match. Chertsey piled forward, overrunning The Dial midfield and almost taking the lead on two separate occasions. A goal correctly disallowed for offside, then another effort crashing off the crossbar, showed Dial Square that things weren't going their way, whatsoever.

With time running out and in a desperate bid to get something out of the game, the Boss threw on George Holland, who had just come back from an injury, for the last 5 minutes. It was to prove a master stroke.
With the game entering injury time, Holland got a chance inside the box to steer it past the keeper and give Dial Square an unlikely lead.
It seemed as though the game was done and dusted and the referee would blow up, but there was still one last piece of action, which almost resulted in a goal.

With virtually the last kick of the game, the ball fell to Holland again and while he tried to steady himself to get the shot away, the Chertsey 'Keeper had quickly narrowed the angle to make an excellent save from his effort.
It was the last action of the match and the referee blew for full-time.

It could've easily been such a different score line, but credit to The Dial, the players never gave up the fight and pushed Chertsey all the way for the 90 minutes. There are plenty of things to be worked on and lots of room for improvement in many areas, but it was the club's first ever 3 points and league win, so the players can draw positives on that.

Ben Bateman and George Holland were standout players, but Sam Donachie pipped them to the 'Man Of The Match' award. Another great effort from the youngster and such a hard-working player, Sam is always a threat and an outlet going forward. Well done, Sam!

MOTM - Sam Donachie

NEXT UP - AFC West End

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